The Elizabeth Hotel, Singapore.

Sunrise at the Elizabeth Hotel.  The window is a little cloudy this morning due to dew on the outside of the window.  We got a 3-hour tropical thunder storm last night that made the place very damp and muggy today.

The only thing Sandy's feet are missing is a sweating Corona (and a lime).

Hard at work on sabbatical trying to solve an endogeneity problem!  I am sure the answer will come to me after one more Singapore Sling.

Our delicious dinner of fried carrot cake in the foreground and an assortment of curries with chicken.  Yummy and cheap!

The view from our 11th floor hotel room.  The hedge maze and tennis court below are not part of our hotel complex.  Our pool, which is out of the photo, is just below the tennis court.  The building beyond the maze is a luxury condominium complex.  Its dirty appearance is due to some condos with their curtains pulled shut while others have their curtains open to prying eyes.

Guess Where?

Guess where we are right now?  Hint: Jeff, Diana and Janet don't get to guess!

Beautiful Dunedin, New Zealand!

Sorry for the delay, but we were just too busy to blog in Dunedin.  Our four days, three nights in our former hometown were not long enough!

Our first excursion in Dunedin is our old favorite, Tunnel Beach, which is very close to our house.

This photo is in front of the iconic building at Otago University, where I used to work.

Three gorgeous ladies at the rugby match.

Manassah in action.  With those tree-trunk legs, nobody wants to get in his way.  His team, Southern Pacific, stomped the visitors from Invercargill.  The score was a lot of tries to two.

My girlfriend having a Speights Old Dark at the brewery.

Good friends, great colleagues, delicious dinner at the Speights Ale House.  No, that's not Ron Howard in the yellow shirt and ball cap!

St. Clair Beach in south Dunedin, just below our former home.  Quite a magical place!

From Aoraki to Queenstown

Lake Pukaki, below the Tasman Glacier, is a beautiful blue hue.

Next to the lake, we found some giant, Middle-earthian mushrooms.  While I am sure they are delicious, we didn't give them a go.

The waterfront in Queenstown is quite spectacular being surrounded by the Southern Alps.  This is the center of NZ skiing.

Lake Wakatipu is big.  Here is a photo showing a sailboat in the foreground, our hotel on the water to the right, and a view of one of the mountain ranges in the background.  This is just the harbor area of the lake, which at over 1,200 feet deep and 50 miles long, is NZ's third largest lake.  The bottom of Lake Wakatipu is about 200 feet BELOW sea level!

Of course with my luck, I run across the only aggressive Kiwi in the area.

Here is a panoramic shot from our hotel room balcony.  Life is good!

Aoraki (Mt. Cook)

We took a 6-mile round trip hike to Hooker Lake.  This is a smallish iceberg (a couple feet above water level) in the lake with Hooker Glacier in the background.  Mt. Cook was hidden from view up and to the right.

Here is a photo of what Mt. Cook looked like today when the fog lifted.

Today we took a boat trip up Tasman Lake to the Tasman Glacier, the largest glacier in NZ.  Here is a photo of a huge iceberg on the lake.  This iceberg is some thirty feet high.

Unfortunately, the glacier was enshrouded by fog.  This photo shows the tip of the glacier showing through the fog.

Christchurch, New Zealand

Visiting Glenn and Margaret Boyle in Christchurch.  We last saw them both when they visited us in 1999 (?).  We met at Pomeroy's Brewery and Inn, which just happens to be where we are staying while in Christchurch.  Cheers!

On the beach in New Zealand's second city.

The Christchurch Cathedral, condemned after the series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, still stands as a testament to both the power of Mother Nature and the ineptness of government.  The tower, which should tower over the cathedral in the foreground, fell over.  The scaffolding, which was intended to hold up the north wall, was apparently unable to withstand the forces of subsequent quakes.

Looking south from the New Brighton pier, Christchurch, NZ.

My girlfriend double-fisting stouts at Pomeroy's.

Last day in Singapore before heading to Aotearoa!

A huge tug boat pulling an enormous cargo ship carrying a gigantic oil platform (?).

The friendly neighborhood monitor lizard we see during our morning walks.

Sunrise Friday morning, our last day in Singapore before leaving for New Zealand (but we'll be back).

Day 1 in Singapore!

We took a noon-time walk along the Changi Boardwalk.  It was very warm already.  That is Malaysia in the background.  This evening we ate some delicious chili crab, cereal prawns, sliced fish, and spicy vegetable at Belly View, a restaurant at a coastal sailing club with friends Jeremy and Julie.

Tropical Singapore has some amazing vegetation.  The tree is just outside our room at the Changi Cove Hotel.  That is me in the hat standing within one of the "folds" of the tree!

Denver to Tokyo

Tokyo

After a twelve hour flight, three movies, a dinner, a snack and a breakfast we made it to Tokyo.  We still have another 5 hour flight to Singapore. It is after 1:00 AM for us but it is after 4:00 PM here.  We will need the two days in Singapore to recuperate before boarding another airplane for New Zealand.

Pre-takeoff

Less than 24 hours before our adventure begins.